Thursday, September 02, 2010 22:22 PM
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Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo said he supported the reverse osmosis technology currently being developed by PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol to provide an alternative water supply.
“I requested the permit [for the reverse osmosis plant] be issued because calculations show that the supply from [private tap water operators] Aetra and Palyja would not be able to keep up [with demand],” he said Friday.
He criticized PT Aetra Air Jakarta and PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) for sluggish progress in terms of investment, which hampered their operations.
Fauzi played down Aetra’s fear of negative impacts to the cross-subsidy water tariff system should Ancol, one of their biggest customers, reduce its dependency on tap water supply by operating its reverse osmosis facility.
“Aetra’s shook. I myself would probably look for alternatives if Aetra and Palyja failed to meet demand,” he said.
Reverse osmosis technology makes clean water by forcing seawater through plastic membranes with microscopic pores.
The membranes extract dissolved salts, while excess silt is removed with chemicals.
On June 11, Aetra president director Syahril Japarin sent a letter to city water operator PAM Jaya, asking PAM Jaya to explain whether it had issued Ancol a permit to build a reverse osmosis facility.
In the letter, obtained by the press, Syahril said he feared a disruption to the cross-subsidy system would lead to an increase in charges for subsidized low-income customers and hurt the water operator’s business.
PAM Jaya president director Mauritz Napitupulu said PAM Jaya asked Ancol to keep using the tap water service although it allowed the owner of the biggest theme park in the city to use a reverse osmosis treatment plant to provide water supply to areas not covered by Aetra.
An Ancol official confirmed that the US$5.72 million seawater reverse osmosis facility in Ancol, North Jakarta, would help reduce Ancol’s dependency on tap water beginning in December.
“The facility will initially treat 5,000 cubic meters of seawater every day, gradually increasing to 10,000 cubic meters,” Ancol corporate secretary Fransiskus Xaverius Husni said recently.
When the desalination plant starts operation, Ancol would only need 7,000 cubic meters of water from Aetra, he added.
Ancol consumes 12,000 cubic meters of clean water per day at a cost of Rp 12,550 ($1.3) per cubic meter compared to the subsidized tariff of Rp 1,050 per cubic meter.
Fauzi said he was waiting for recommendations from the Jakarta Water Regulatory Body about any increases in water tariffs, a move that was recently taken by neighboring Bogor city.
Bogor water company PDAM Tirta Pakuan announced it planned to impose a 13 percent increase
in water tariffs for 12,000 custo-mers in upscale neighborhoods and industrial estates starting in July.
“What is clear is that we will not burden poor people, now or later,” Fauzi said.
Meanwhile, water regulatory body head Irzal Djamal said he once suggested the city maintain the subsidy for poor households using less than 10 cubic meters of water a day, but double the rate
hike for households using more than 20 cubic meters of water a day.
The suggestion, he said, was made since most households enjoying the lowest rates had reportedly been using more water than customers who pay higher rates to make the cross-subsidy possible.
“This way, we can reduce the cross-subsidy burden and maintain the commercial customers’ loyalty in using tap water,” he said, adding that the governor had not made a decision on the idea.
